In designing components for an aircraft, safety is of the utmost importance. At the same time, consideration must be given to the size and weight of any components used. Any savings realized in size and weight can improve overall efficiency of the aircraft.
Prior art nosewheel steering systems have utilized multiple path power transmissions, driven by a single power source, to steer the nosewheel of the aircraft. Each path in the power transmission might consist of a separate geartrain.
As a result of inherent manufacturing deficiencies, the separate geartrains may not divide the power delivered to the load equally. It is possible that one of the geartrains would deliver, for example, sixty percent of the power to the load while the other geartrain would delivery forty percent of the power to the load. Consequently, each of the two geartrains must be sized to accommodate the sixty percent power requirement to avoid the possibility of failure due to overloading. The net result of this is a heavier and larger power transmission than would be required if equal power delivery could be achieved. This result is obviously undesirable.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.